The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office is making citizens aware of a scam that has been going on across the country for several months and seems to be becoming more prevalent.
The department says the scammer claims to be a member of a drug cartel and sends the recipient disturbing images of mutilated bodies, threatening bodily harm to the recipient’s family members. In some instances, the messages may contain pictures of the recipient’s home or information obtained about the recipient from open sources of information such as Google and social media.
The sender is attempting to scare the recipient into paying money out of fear of being targeted. In most instances, the phone numbers appear to be local but are owned by Voice-Over-Internet-Protocol companies.
If you receive a text like this, you are urged to notify Central Dispatch at (660) 747-5511 or your nearest law-enforcement agency, and don’t engage in conversation with the scammer.